BMC pulmonary medicine
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BMC pulmonary medicine · Jan 2011
Elevated placenta growth factor predicts pneumonia in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease under inhaled corticosteroids therapy.
An increased incidence of pneumonia in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) under inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) therapy was noticed in previous studies. We performed a prospective study to elucidate the risk factors for the development of pneumonia in this group of patients. ⋯ ICS therapy in patients with COPD increased the risk of pneumonia. However, there was no relationship between the incidence of pneumonia and dosage of ICS. Additionally, advanced COPD status, DM and elevated PlGF level were independent risk factors for the development of pneumonia. PlGF would be a good novel biomarker for predicting pneumonia.
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BMC pulmonary medicine · Jan 2011
Ageing and long-term smoking affects KL-6 levels in the lung, induced sputum and plasma.
KL-6 is a high-molecular-weight glycoprotein classified as a human MUC1 mucin. It was hypothesized that KL-6 could be detectable in the circulating blood and especially in airway secretions in lung diseases associated with mucus production such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Additional aims of this study were to investigate whether the levels of KL-6 in plasma and sputum are related to ageing and smoking history. ⋯ KL-6 increases with ageing and chronic smoking history, but prospective studies will be needed to elucidate the significance of KL-6 in chronic airway diseases.
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BMC pulmonary medicine · Jan 2011
Case ReportsMulti tyrosine kinase inhibitor dasatinib as novel cause of severe pre-capillary pulmonary hypertension?
Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a life-threatening disease with poor prognosis. Encouraging efforts have been made to target the main vasoproliferative aspects of the disease. Promising emerging therapeutics are tyrosine kinase inhibitors such as imatinib. ⋯ We therefore recommend systematic screening of dasatinib-treated patients for pulmonary hypertension and subsequent collection of haemodynamic data.